Three UK navy websites for use by Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers as 20 motels shut – full listing

The Home Office has confirmed it will move more asylum seekers into UK military asylum accommodation as it ramps up its drive to get people out of hotels, with 20 more set to close

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It has been announced that more UK military barracks will be utilised to accommodate asylum seekers, moving them out of hotels.

The Home Office has declared it will intensify efforts to relocate individuals to Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites, confirming the closure of 20 additional hotels across the country.

On Thursday, Keir Starmer stated that fewer Channel crossings mean fewer asylum seekers require housing, asserting that the system is “more under control” than it was under the Tories, reports the Mirror.

Shabana Mahmood is due to introduce new legislation next week aimed at removing barriers to deportations. Ms Mahmood, who is widely anticipated to retain her position as Home Secretary if Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister, argues that current laws are susceptible to exploitation.

Ministers intend to transfer people to MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire. They also plan to prolong the use of existing asylum sites in Crowborough until 2030 and Wethersfield beyond 2027.

Campaign groups have expressed their indignation, cautioning that military sites are not appropriate for housing traumatised individuals. On Thursday, Mr Starmer defended the government’s track record on migration, stating that Labour had made “really important progress” since assuming power.

He emphasised the importance of preventing the asylum system from spiralling out of control as it did under the Conservatives.

The Prime Minister stated: “In the first two years of this government, we have made really important progress on immigration. One of the tests of an outgoing Prime Minister is whether you leave the country in a better state than what you found it, and I am leaving it in a better state.

“Migration has long been a cause for concern. On lawful migration, which when we came in two years ago, net migration was nearly a million, we got that down to about a fifth of that number, so a huge reduction, over 80% reduction.

“On the crossings across the channel, which so many people are understandably concerned about, we brought those numbers down as well. The steps we are taking are beginning to pay off, and at the same time, asylum hotels are closing.

“Now those are linked. Fewer crossings mean there are less people that need to be housed.”

He continued: “Now there is more to do, but in a much better place than we were two years ago.

“The ambition is to close those asylum hotels, reduce those channel crossings. Nobody should be making that crossing. And having got it more under control it’s about keeping it under control and not letting it spiral like the last government.”

As of the end of December, there were 30,657 asylum seekers residing in hotels. Approximately 170 hotels are currently being utilised, a decrease from 400 in 2023 – when a peak of 56,042 individuals were accommodated in this manner.

Mr Starmer vowed to shut down all remaining asylum hotels by 2029. Asylum minister Alex Norris declared: “We promised to close every asylum hotel and hand them back to communities, and that is exactly what we are doing. Twenty more hotels have closed, and hotel numbers have more than halved since their peak.

“Instead, we’re moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last Government left us with.”

The MOD facility in Bicester was designated for asylum accommodation under Tony Blair, but was never utilised due to declining demand. RAF Barnham – formerly employed as a storage facility for nuclear weapons – has been speculated to be under consideration following recent activity at the location.

And RAF Linton-on-Ouse was planned to become an asylum facility under the Tories, but they scrapped the proposal in 2022 following extensive local resistance. Combined, these fresh locations could accommodate approximately 3,750 individuals.

Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy at Helen Bamber Foundation, expressed her horror at the proposals. She stated: “We have repeatedly shown through clinical evidence that housing people in ex-military sites like RAF Wethersfield causes profound and long-lasting harm to their mental and physical health. These sites are extremely isolated, resemble prisons with barbed wire and surveillance and lack privacy.

“People forced to live there are often unable to access legal advice and other services. For individuals who have already survived conflict, persecution, torture and trafficking, being forced to live in such conditions compounds existing trauma and can have devastating consequences for their mental and physical health, including depression, suicidal ideation and self-harm.”

The revelation emerges before Ms Mahmood’s Immigration and Asylum Bill, anticipated to be outlined on Tuesday. It will limit how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) can be utilised to block deportations by tightening regulations surrounding families.

The Modern Slavery Act will also be overhauled to crack down on eleventh-hour claims. And Ms Mahmood is anticipated to unveil a fresh asylum tribunal system with stricter regulations concerning appeals.

Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “Rather than making appeals harder, the Government needs to be addressing why so many initial decisions are found to be flawed.”

The asylum hotels being closed are;:

• Dayz Away Lodge – Dudley, West Midlands
• Holiday Inn Ashford Central – Ashford, Kent
• Best Western Atlantic – Chelmsford, Essex
• The Cisswood – Horsham, Sussex
• The Collection Hotel – Edgbaston, Birmingham
• Adagio – Leicester, East Midlands
• Norwich Hotel – Norwich, Norfolk
• Allerton Court – Northallerton, North Yorkshire
• Mercure George – Reading, Berkshire
• TLK Apartments – Bromley, Greater London
• Best Western Stoke – Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
• The Granby (1 The Hill) – Gravesham, Kent
• Hampton by Hilton – Bristol
• Delta Hotel Cheshunt – Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
• Episode Leamington – Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
• Oxford Witney Hotel – Oxford, Oxfordshire
• Shambrook – Bedford, Bedfordshire
• Bell hotel – Epping, Essex
• OYO Evesham hotel – Evesham, Worcestershire
• Best Western – Wembley, London